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Such is perhaps the su-up of the news of the Hamleys, as

contained in e

to Molly

Mrs Gibson generally said, as a comment upon her husband's account

of Osborne's melancholy,--

"My dear! why don't you ask him to dinner here? A little quiet

dinner, you know Cook is quite up to it; and ould all of us wear

blacks and lilacs; he couldn't consider that as gaiety"

Mr Gibson took no

his head He had grown accustoarded silence on his own part as a great preservative against long

inconsequential arguments But every time that Mrs Gibson was struck

by Cynthia's beauty, she thought it more and more advisable that Mr

Osborne Hamley should be cheered up by a quiet little dinner-party

As yet no one but the ladies of Hollingford and Mr Ashton, the

vicar--that hopeless and impracticable old bachelor--had seen